As someone who, after a quarter-century of covering politics and government, has very little faith in real policy change for the better, I must say I'm impressed with Sen. Bob Casey's change on guns.

"After Newtown, I made a substantial shift in my positions," Casey says.

This was during the 7 a.m. hour on Monday's edition of "Morning Joe" on the MSNBC cable news network. You can watch it here.

Casey stressed his support for congressional votes on an assault-weapons ban, limiting magazine clips and adopting universal background checks.

This comes from a Pennsylvania pol born and raised in the Keystone State's long-entrenched trifecta for electoral sucess -- pro-life, pro-labor, pro-gun -- in a state with nearly a million hunters.

But it also comes from a pol who's career, and that of his late father's, is rooted in working for children in issues such as early education, health-care and health insurance coverage.

So it makes sense that the slaughter in Newtown touched him deeply enough to pull away from past allegience to the NRA.

The change is not without risk. As Casey correctly pointed out Monday morning, he'll get heat from pro-gun constitutents for abandoning a core tenet of his politics and he'll get heat from gun-control advocates asking what took so long.

Former Gov. Rendell, appearing with Casey on the program, noted Pennsylvania has the second highest NRA membership among the states.

But Casey argued the measures to be considered have nothing to do with talking guns from anyone or impacting hunting or limiting self- and home-protection.